1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronics and electrical systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to target acquisition systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many air-to-ground weapons systems utilize a ground-based soldier (commonly termed “warrior”) to provide target position data, which is then used by a missile system to lock onto the target. Current schemes include the use of laser designation of the target, which typically requires the warrior to constantly illuminate the target with a laser, placing the warrior at risk of detection.
An alternative target acquisition solution is to have the warrior calculate the absolute coordinates of the target location using a map and/or other equipment and then radio the coordinates to the missile launch system or to command personnel. The warrior may have electronic equipment to help in this calculation, such as a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver for determining the warrior's position, a laser rangefinder for measuring the distance to the target, and/or a handheld calculator or computer. However, it may still take several minutes to set up the different pieces of equipment, take measurements, input measurements to the computer, calculate the target's coordinates, and radio the coordinates to the network.
Thus, in both schemes, the warrior must spend more time than is desirable to acquire the target position, time during which the warrior may be at risk of detection or exposed to enemy fire.
Hence, a need exists in the art for an improved system or method for acquiring a target location that requires less time than prior approaches.